26 climbs are to be tackled in the 2025 Tour de France, which are classified as second, first or honour category (Hors Catégorie). That is one fewer than in 2024, compared to 30 in 2023 and 23 in 2022. Eight of these climbs are in the Pyrenees, nine in the Alps, one in the Jura and eight in the Massif Central, where the first mountain stage will also be held.
Stage 10 | Monday, 14 July 2025 | Ennezat - Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy | 165.3 kilometres - 4450 vertical metres
In 2023, the Tour de France returned to the Puy de Dome after a long absence. In the shadow of the volcanic cone in the Auvergne, the 10th stage starts two years later. A total of seven categorised mountain classifications await the riders on the rollercoaster ride with 4450 metres of altitude difference towards Mont-Dore. A little further south, a of the most spectacular stages of the 2024 Tour in Le Lioran. Tadej Pogacar attacked more than 30 kilometres before the finish, but was caught by Jonas Vingegaard and defeated in the sprint for the stage win.
Stage 12 | Thursday, 17 July 2025 | Auch - Hautacam | 180.6 kilometres - 3850 vertical metres
In the middle of the second week, the race heads into the Pyrenees. The last 60 kilometres or so, with the Col du Soulor, the Col des Bordères and the mountain arrival in Hautacam, will be exciting for the classification riders. There, at the latest, the best riders will have to prove themselves for the first time in the battle for the yellow jersey man against man on the mountain.
Six times a Tour de France stage ended in Hautacam. There was often trouble about the winner later on. Bjarne Riis, who still unofficially holds the record for the ascent with just under 35 minutes from 1996, confessed to doping in 2007. However, the offence was already time-barred under sporting law, which is why he is still on the list of winners. In contrast to Leonardo Piepoli, who, like his team-mate at the time Riccardo Ricco, tested positive for the EPO drug CERA during the 2008 Tour de France. Undoubtedly one of the lowest points in the history of the Tour of France. Piepoli's team-mate Juan Jose Cobo inherited the victory. The manager of the Saunier Duval team around Piepoli, Ricco and Cobo at the time was a certain Mauro Gianetti - today the boss of Tadej Pogacar at UAE Team Emirates.
In 2014 and 2022, Vincenzo Nibali and Jonas Vingegaard cemented their Tour de France victories in Hautacam. The year 2022 in particular will be fondly remembered by many cycling fans, when Wout van Aert rode the entire competition around Pogacar to the ground with Vingegaard on his rear wheel.
The previous winners of the arrivals in Hautacam at the Tour de France
- 1994 Luc Leblanc
- 1996 Bjarne Riis
- 2000 Javier Otxoa
- 2008 Juan Jose Cobo
- 2014 Vincenzo Nibali
- 2022 Jonas Vingegaard
Stage 13 | Friday, 18 July 2025 | Loudenvielle - Peyragudes | 10.9 kilometres (individual time trial) - 650 vertical metres
Strictly speaking, this is not a mountain stage, but an individual time trial. Nevertheless, it also belongs on this list, as there will be plenty of climbing on 18 July. There are 650 metres of altitude to overcome over eleven kilometres in a battle against the clock, giving you that 007 feeling. The stage finish on the Altiport was made famous by the Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies".
This will hardly affect the riders as they prepare for the stage. Above all, they will be thinking about how to organise their strength correctly. After all, the toughest section with up to 16 per cent awaits just before the finish on the airfield. This has already taken its toll on many a top rider - like Chris Froome in 2017, who lost 22 seconds to stage winner Romain Bardet within a few hundred metres on the final ramp.
The previous winners of the arrivals in Peyragudes at the Tour de France
- 2012 Alejandro Valverde
- 2017 Romain Bardet
- 2022 Tadej Pogacar
Stage 14 | Saturday, 19 July 2025 | Pau - Luchon-Superbagneres | 182.6 kilometres - 4950 vertical metres
Another historic Tour de France location is reached on the 14th stage. In Superbagneres, Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault from the La Vie Claire team once fought a duel on the 13th stage of the 1986 Tour. The angular five-time Tour winner Hinault (nickname: the Badger) suffered a heavy defeat, losing more than four and a half minutes and four days later also the yellow jersey to his American team-mate. The circle closes 39 years later, as the stage consists of Tourmalet, Aspin, Peyresourde and the final climb to Superbagneres, just like the 1986 stage. With almost 5000 metres of climbing, it was going to be a brutally difficult day in the Pyrenees.
Previous winners of the Tour de France arrivals in Superbagneres
- 1961 Imerio Massignan
- 1962 (individual time trial) Federico Bahamontes
- 1971 Jose Manuel Fuente
- 1979 (individual time trial) Bernard Hinault
- 1986 Greg LeMond
- 1989 Robert Millar
Stage 16 | Tuesday, 22 July 2025 | Montpellier - Mont Ventoux | 171.5 kilometres - 2950 vertical metres
In 2025, the Tour de France will return to Mont Ventoux after four years. In 2021, however, the finish of the 11th stage, which was won by Wout van Aert, was in the valley. The last mountain finish was blown away by the wind in 2016, which is why the finish was moved from the summit to the Chalet Reynard. There was chaos in the finale. The images of Chris Froome jogging up Mont Ventoux in the yellow jersey went around the world. It was also the Briton who, three years earlier, had won the last ever arrival on the summit of the Bald Giant in Provence at the Tour.
The name Mont Ventoux is also closely associated with the fate of Tom Simpson. The Briton fell off his bike three kilometres below the summit in 1967, pumped full of amphetamines and alcohol. Spectators helped him up again, but a short time later he crashed again and died - the issue of doping in connection with cycling appeared in a different light. To this day, a memorial stone stands at the spot on Mont Ventoux where Simpson collapsed.
In 2025, 15.7 kilometres with an average gradient of 8.8 per cent await the riders at the end of a flat approach. It becomes particularly difficult when the riders have reached the tree line and the wind can have a significant impact on the race.
Previous winners of the Tour de France arrivals at Mont Ventoux
- 1958 (individual time trial) Charly Gaul
- 1965 Raymond Poulidor
- 1970 Eddy Merckx
- 1972 Bernard Thevenet
- 1987 (individual time trial) Jean-Francois Bernard
- 2000 Marco Pantani
- 2002 Richard Virenque
- 2009 Juan Manuel Garate
- 2013 Chris Froome
- 2016 (finish at Chalet Reynard) Thomas De Gendt
Stage 18 | Thursday, 24 July 2025 | Vif - Courchevel Col de la Loze | 171.5 kilometres - 5450 vertical metres
On the fourth-last day of the Tour de France 2025, not only does the queen stage await with 5450 metres of climbing, but it also goes to the roof of the Tour. The Col de la Loze at 2304 metres is the highest point of the 2025 Tour of France. The climb was included in the Tour course for the first time in 2020 and has all the makings of a new classic. However, a different ascent route will be used in 2025 than in 2020 - when the stage ended on the pass - and 2023, when the finish was in Courchevel after crossing the Col de la Loze. Tadej Pogacar doesn't have very fond memories of the mountain. In 2020, he lost a few seconds to his compatriot Primoz Roglic. Three years later, the Slovenian experienced the worst collapse of his career to date and had to let Jonas Vingegaard go. The more than 26 kilometre-long ascent will take its toll again this time. The Col du Glandon and the Col de la Madeleine, two gigantic Alpine passes, are almost just an afterthought.
Previous winners of the Tour de France arrivals at the Col de la Loze
- 2020 Miguel Angel Lopez
Stage 19 | Friday, 25 July 2025 | Albertville - La Plagne | 129.9 kilometres - 4550 vertical metres
Another day with the profile of a shark's teeth - the rollercoaster ride through the Alps possibly reaches its climax here. 4550 metres of elevation gain await on just 129.9 kilometres. And there is hardly a flat metre. Cote d'Hery-sur-Ugine, Col des Saisies, Col du Pre and Cormete de Roselend prepare the mise en place for the grand finale in La Plagne. The final climb has been the finish of a Tour de France stage a total of four times - the last time in 2002 - so it is new territory for the Vingegaard, Pogacar and Evenepoel generation. The climb is long and even, the really steep ramps are missing. If you want to cause an upset in the battle for the yellow jersey here, you need a strong team to soften up the competition on the first climbs and then finally leave them behind on the last climb.
Previous winners of the Tour de France arrivals in La Plagne
- 1984 Laurent Fignon
- 1987 Laurent Fignon
- 1995 Alex Zülle
- 2002 Michael Boogerd
